Performance: Barbara Wittenberg, violin; Ulrich Witteler, cello
About A song for peace:
“I. neighborhood, II. synapses, III. peace
A song for peace was composed for Musicians4UnitedEurope. The short piece is a musical analogy to my preferred way of communication between people.
During the first short part neighborhood the cello presents his opinion on a topic and the violin answers with a variation of the theme in a soft tone. Each one is listening to the other one and answers it in his own words.
The second short part, synapses, begins with a dialogue, during which the two players approach each other while playing the same theme alternately, and finally together. It is a musical agreement, which provides a sonic identity for each of the players.
During the third, even shorter part peace, the players disengage themselves from one or the other opinion, and perform a kind of musical meditation – intense but relaxed. Now, the duo performs as if they were one single musician playing in peace, with respect and in balance.”
About Konstantia Gourzi:
“For over three decades, Athens-born composer, conductor and university professor Konstantia Gourzi has been shaping contemporary music with her distinctive musical language. Her works radiate an inner luminosity – emerging from silence and centeredness, they unfold a dramatic intensity that never strives for volume, but rather for depth.
For Gourzi, composition and conducting are inseparably linked forms of expression – a mutual enrichment that has always inspired and defined her work.
Her music opens up spaces for reflection and emotional depth – often with reduced instrumentation, it unfolds a haunting effect. Her compositions strike an impressive balance between complexity and clarity, between inner strength and poetic restraint.
Gourzi’s repertoire includes works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, solo instruments, music theatre and film. This often creates sonic landscapes that feel like journeys through multiple levels of perception. In her compositions, she frequently explores timeless themes – social issues, spiritual impulses, and the human connection to nature. She feels a deep inner calling to transform these themes through the unique energy of music.
Her musical training began in Athens with piano, composition, and conducting, and continued at what is now the Berlin University of the Arts. Her close collaboration with György Kurtág between 1991 and 1996 was especially formative. She also received significant inspiration from Isang Yun, Hans Werner Henze, Sofia Gubaidulina, Péter Eötvös, Aribert Reimann, and Iannis Xenakis. As a conductor, she was deeply influenced by Claudio Abbado (whom she assisted with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1995), Carlos Kleiber, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Günter Wand, Sylvia Caduff, and Michael Gielen.
Since 1991, she has founded and led various ensembles, including the Ensemble attacca berlin, the Echo Ensemble, the ensemble oktopus, and the network and ensemble opus21musikplus. From 1999 to 2007, she headed the Department of New Music at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin; since 2002, she has been professor of ensemble conducting for new music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.
Numerous institutions, festivals and orchestras have commissioned works from her, including the ARD Music Competition, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the BBC, the Bavarian State Opera, the Venice Biennale, the Lucerne Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Kreisau Festival, the Grafenegg Festival, the Tonkünstler Orchestra, the Berlin State Opera, the Athens State Orchestra, the Bach Choir Salzburg, among many others.
Konstantia Gourzi regularly composes for international renowned soloists such as Nils Mönkemeyer, François Leleux, Cathy Krier, Dorothee Oberlinger, Julian Prégardien, Mikael Rudolfsson, Elisabeth Plank, Danae and Kiveli Dörken, Anastasia Kobekina, and William Youn, as well as for renowned ensembles including the Minguet Quartet, the Auner Quartet, the Cuarteto Quiroga, Klangforum Wien, the Munich Opera Horns, OPERcussion, the Feininger Trio, and the Meitar Ensemble.
Her extensive discography of over 30 releases has appeared on ECM, GENUIN, NEOS and Sony Classical, among others. Many of her albums have been nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award and the International Classical Music Awards. Several new recordings of her works were released in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, Konstantia Gourzi was awarded the Opus Klassik as ‘Composer of the Year’. Her album ‘Whispers’ has already reached more than 50 million listeners on social media, and this number continues to grow steadily.
A central concern in her work is building bridges between cultures – through the interplay of different musical traditions, she seeks to open paths toward more conscious and respectful coexistence. She brings this vision to life in interdisciplinary performance formats, collaborating with musicians from around world, visual artists, and dancers – and bringing new music into unconventional spaces. Supporting young artists is also a deeply personal mission of hers.
In recent years, as a composer, conductor and educator, she has focused on special projects – often in the context of composer/ artist-in-residence programmes. She has contributed to festivals such as Grafenegg, Kreisau, Molyvos, Ultraschall Berlin and worked with the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra (for the Eigenzeit Festival). She has curated projects at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and designed her own portrait concerts. Recent highly acclaimed performances include collaborations with Camerata Salzburg, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (Canada), and the DSO Berlin.
In the 2025/2026 season, Konstantia Gourzi will be composer in residence with the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra. The Mainz Philharmonic State Orchestra will dedicate its 2026 composer portrait to her. This will include numerous world premieres, orchestral and chamber music concerts, and educational programmes. Concerts are also planned at the Vienna Konzerthaus and at several festivals.
Another major focus of her current work, with her Munich-based ensemble oktopus – now in its 20th year – is the continuous development of interdisciplinary concert formats that open new paths of musical communication and experience.”
“My music is influenced by my Greek roots, history and what I have learned and am learning during my studies and life. I try to create a mixture of sounds involving melodies, rhythm and timbre in each piece. My wish is to build the music dramaturgically in such a way that you can feel it emotionally, but at the same time it also gives you the space to perceive yourself within it. The question of identity in music and the understanding of the world remains very exciting and challenging.
The inspiration can be a musician or the ensemble asking me to write a piece for them; it can be nature, or a social or political issue. There is usually an urge to describe something with music and often also to transform a situation. Music allows me to ‘speak’ about a theme, about a problem or about beauty on another non-verbal level and trust it.
Being conscious of tradition and carry it forward into today considering the contemporary themes and social tensions is one of the goals for myself as a composer and as a conductor.”
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